DnA, a J80 owned by David & Amanda Hammett, finished the 125 mile Newport to Ensenada race in the dark early Saturday morning in 15 hours 03 minutes 04 seconds, having made good an average of 8.305 knots down the race course.

With DnA's 22 foot waterline, that's 1.7706 times SQRT of LWL - Wow!!

Despite being almost the smallest boat, they beat over 80% of the 452 boat fleet boat for boat.

Boat for boat, they beat every single cruising class boat including a Swan53, a Hyalas 49, a Catalina 47, two Cal 40s, and a Beneteau 46. They beat all but two PHRF F boats, a Peterson 50 and a J46 that they were minutes behind. The PHRF F boats they beat included a Swan 57, a Peterson 49, two J44s, two Andrews 42s, and Beneteaus 40.7 and 47.7. In PHRF B, C, and D, they beat 3 of 12 J120s, all the J105s, all the Schock 35s, a Farr 395, 2 of 3 Tripp 40s, 1 of 3 Olson 40s, a Mumm 36, and an X37. In PHRF A, they beat a Farr 44, a Frers 55, and a Nelson Mareck 50. They beat two MacGregor 65s. They even beat half the multihulls, including an F-31, an F-28, and an F-24.

I'd love to read an interview of the crew.

I was crew aboard Falcon, a sistership to my Wilderness 40 Tropicbird. We averaged 7.99 knots in the westerly 10 to 25 winds at mostly about 100 apparent with either the 3/4 or the 1.5 to finish in 15 hours 38 minutes 15 seconds, which earned us a 6th in PHRF D.

While I was in crew rest, a little pole boat, either DnA or a J92, blew by us like we were parked. I wish I could have seen the future go by.

It was pretty cool to come into the anchorage in the dark and see boats one would expect, like Ragtime and Medicine Man, and ones one wouldn't, like a little J80.

Speaking as a new convert to J80 performance, the ride to Ensenada this year was the best I have ever experienced.

The skipper of DnA is my younger brother David. Until Friday morning I had never sailed the boat. From the word "GO!" speed and swells were our friends. The use of the Code-0, about 200 yards off the line was like shifting gears in "super-hemmy" drag racer from 1st to overdrive in less than a few seconds barely releasing the clutch each shift.

The rest of the performance was the outstanding crew participation and focus by two young but very outstanding twins Steve and Robbie.

Dave's driving/shooting down in the waves like a seasoned northshore Oahu surfer added to the fun and maximized the speed. Rarely did we ever wallow in the trough between two waves. At one moment in time, I saw the GPS registering 17.7 Knots for about 5 seconds before retreating to 15.8. For most of the race, I watched the race course by looking at Dave's orange mirrored sunglasses, while I grinded back every inch of eased sheet of the kyte, my back to the wash of saltwater constantly drenching me. All I could really see was the bow constantly pointed toward the face of the wave ahead of us and 4-6 feet of white water spray shooting off the sides of the hull forward of the mast. All before dark.

While not grinding a winch near midnight, taking a nap on the rail was fun too. All covered up with my foulies and legs over the side, the nighttime sensation of speed changed from watching forward to just feeling the hull sing through the speed changes.

Thank you all for all of your support reguarding the preformance of DnA in the Ensenada Race. I wish to write more in a week when I get back from a delivery to San Fransico. Please feel free to email us now that you have our email address and we will get back as soon as possible. Thanks David & Amanda Hammett DnA "It's in the Jeans

The sail we used at the start of the Ensenada Race is a modified Code 0 to PHRF rules of Southern Cal. The rule states the top midgirth can be no less than 75% of the foot lenght. so that makes the leech convex "no leech hollow" the luff is straight and uses 1/4" spec 12 bolt rope. The luff of the sail is 1 foot short of the max diminsion. This helps for when the pole spears waves. The sail is Airex 1000 luff with 700 middle and is approx 640 sq ft. We can sail between 60-110 deg apprenet wind angle, up to 30 knts true. I also have a Arix 500 and 700 max runner which has approx 930 sq ft of area each, you can see the kite at Elliott/Pattison Sails web site "www.epsails.com". I've been a Outside Sales Rep for 8 years with Elliott/Pattison sailmakers, in Newport Beach Cal. We were doing about steady 12-13 knts in 18-20 true wind speed and catching waves up to 17 knts when that shoot was taken.